Last Wednesday night I got back from a road trip, covering about 1,600km (995 miles) over a period of a week. I hadn’t even been North to Auckland etc since before COVID, so it was such a treat to go on a Summer road trip. Apart from catching up with friends, there were some locations I specifically wanted to revisit, and I also wanted to pick up the TEAC A3440 that I bought late last year, as it is too breakable to freight. It was also my first time trying out the 4WD Camping setup, so I’ll try & write a simple review of where I stayed and what improvements I will make to my setup next….

I always do as much research & planning as I can in the weeks leading up to a road trip. Working out what route to take, how much time I might need for travel & for stops, and where to stay. I’ve written before about forecasting your field recording but that usually applies to the day/s before the trip, as weather is so unpredictable… but avoiding getting rained on, or knowing when its too windy to fly the drone are useful insights to have.

I do a lot of my planning using Google Maps – I use it to note how long each stint will take. Driving 4-5 hours in one day is about my limit. A day with 2 hours of driving or less is an easy day, with plenty of time for exploring. But my main planning is done using my own custom Google Maps. see Google Help how to make your own google map – here is a screenshot of mine, from the trip:

I add markers for each location or stop, and I group them into layers – one layer per day. This makes it easy to reorder and reorganise them (drag & drop) Also since I am logged into my google maps account on my phone, I can access these during the trip.

I do also use Google Earth sometimes – one feature especially useful is the ruler. If you set it to path, you can trace a route and it will tell you the distance. Useful for driving or for planning hikes or mountain biking….

DAY 1 I left Plimmerton, drove to Morere… Stayed in a great Air BnB – a beautifully restored cottage on a farm.

So great to enjoy the night sky without light pollution:

It was so quiet, I set up my mics on the deck and recorded quiet night…. And about 6am I got up & recorded the dawn chorus:

DAY 2 I left Morere and drove to Gisbourne and on to Tolaga Bay, then Tokomaru Bay

One of my missions was to revisit the old wharf at Tokomaru Bay:

The wharf used to have a railway line on it, which ran up to the old freezing works… I was quite surprised to see large parts of the ruins are being cleared & demolished, which is such a shame as the old concrete structures were overgrown with trees and bush, so it used to feel like ancient jungle… I’ve shot it with my XPAN and 5D3 many times before, but this time I wanted to fly my drone inside the main structure, which is a four story high concrete building with no roof. It feels so weird to be inside there, like visiting an ancient sculptural industrial ruins…

I was mainly shooting tracking shots – moving slowly sideways across, so that I could see where the drone was…. After I’d got all the shots I wanted I decided to try flying POV and flew out of sight, but unfortunately I clipped a branch & the drone spun out of control, eventually crash landing into a tree!!
The drone was still live, so I could see via its camera roughly where it was but I didn’t know how high up the tree… So I ran back to the car & dumped my other cameras, then ran back to locate the drone… This involved climbing down a sketchy bank, but I eventually got down to the bottom & just as I started to wonder where it might be, I noticed the drones red light from a tree, only about six foot up! Can you see the red light?

I reached up & got the drone down, all while realising had it not crash landed in that tree, it would have gone down & landed in the stream!! The water would have caused all kinds of damage but I wasn’t out of the woods yet. First I had to climb back up the bank while carrying the drone.. But once back to the car I could see the drone had suffered some damage…

The camera gimbal is normally supported by four small rubber bands/grommets and two of those had been pulled out of their sockets… I went & checked into the Air BnB – a goldfish farm up on top of the hill, with an awesome view of Tokomaru Bay. Then by gently using a pair of chopsticks, I managed to get the two grommets back into their holes so the drone looked like it should work. But when I booted it up, the drone reported error messages – gimbal motors overloaded! Fck! So I had to pack the drone away until I could get to Auckland & have someone diagnose it. Funnily enough I was shooting video when the crash occurred, so I can warch the moment the crash occurs…

Annoyingly, I had ordered some prop guards but they didn’t arrive in time for use on this trip. When you see an FPV drone, their props are fully enclosed so if they bump against a wall or a branch, the drone bounces off & it doesn’t effect the props. For this reason I have also been looking at the new DJI Avata 2 FPV drone but had some concerns & questions, so I emailed the Drone Depot in Auckland, an excellent retailer & support store for DJI drones, and booked in for a repair the following week once I got to Auckland.

DAY 3 I left Tokomaru Bay, and drove around East Cape eventually arriving to Coastlands where I stayed in another Air BnB.

One location I revisited & stopped to have lunch was the old Hicks Bay wharf, which was in even worse condition than previous visits:

Very relaxing, making lunch sitting in the shade…

I stopped off at Waihau Bay for an ice cream… and thought about all the locations I recorded for Taikas film BOY

DAY 4 I left Coastlands & drove to Awhitu Peninsula
This was an off-grid Air BnB consisting of an old campervan which was permanently retired on a farm, and the owners had built a great setup around it, with a deck, shower & compost toilet etc… The view was looking acorss Manuka Harbour Heads to Whatipu:

I stayed two nights here, hoping to shoot the comet after sunset… Unfortunately both evenings were too cloudy, so we made do shooting timelapses, night long exposures etc…

DAY 6 I checked out & drove into Auckland & dropped off my drone to Grant at Drone Depot. I feared the gimbal was munted and knew a replacement gimbal cost over $600. My previous Mavic Pro drone had met a similar fate, and while looking at options to have it fixed, I instead bought a secondhand model (for $800) which came with 3 brand new batteries! Grant did a quick test of the gimbal motors and thought they felt ok, so suggested it was likely the flex cable. I asked for a ‘rush job’ as was only staying in Auckland for one night, and wanted to head South the next morning. Thankfully Grant txted an hour or so later, all fixed & ready for pickup! Total cost was $250 for flex cable replacement plus 4 new propellors!

DAY 7 I left Auckland heading South, after picking up the A3440 & putting its seat belt on:

This time my aim was to stay in coastal scenic town of Mokau, and unlike all previous stops I would try out camping in my 4WD. It was an easy drive, and I scoped out the two options for camping. First was the free camping area provided by the local Council, but it was packed with campervans and didn’t have much of a view or access to the beach…. So I headed to the Seaview Holiday Park which felt like an old school camp ground. Thankfully it wasn’t too busy and I requested a powered tent site “away from everyone else.”

First I set up the awning, which is quick & easy to do:

Then added the tent:

I have an inflatable mattress, and bought a little 12V pump for inflating it…
Next I got my little gas BBQ out & made dinner, had a few drinks & then went for a walk.

This was such a welcome reminder of what a beautiful experience it is to walk barefoot on a wide open sandy beach as day turns to night! I wandered a few kilometres along the beach & suddenly noticed an apparition on the horizon!

OMG is that Mt Taranaki!
Once I got back to the car I checked Google Maps and sure enough:

DAY 8 I packed up & headed homewards, stopping to revisit some locations in Patea. First I wanted to fly the drone inside the old freezing works at Patea, but I soon discovered they have put up a 3metre high barbed wire fence, so there is no way to safely get inside the ruins…

Next I headed down to the Patea river mouth, to check what state the old shipwreck was in:

Impressed with the crowd of fishermen out on the end of the old wharf!

What an excellent summer road trip!
It was pretty hot (20-25C) the whole week, and I was thankful at times for a 12V fan I bought & ran from my battery box in my 4WD. Same for the 12V fridge – it did an excellent job & meant I could buy things for dinner when passing through a town, to later cook on the BBQ.

Mokau was the only time I was dependent on battery power, as despite having a powered tent site I forgot to check what outlet they use, and while I did have an extension cord with me I needed a specific power cable with an RCD overload safety….
So thats next on my list to get for the 4WD camping setup – the cable looks like this one:

It didn’t stitch me up this time as I ran fridge from the 12V Battery Box and after running it overnight (plus the fan at times) the battery box was still reading 12V so it hadn’t flattened it much at all! I think I could likely survive for 2-3 days without any external power, although recharging drone and camera batteries would draw more current from it.

I was really impressed with Seaview Holiday Park at Mokau & highly recommend it. It cost NZ$21 for a powered tent site, plus $6 for a token to have a 6 minute shower the next morning.

Along with the power cable, I will also check out solar showers as it would be essential to have for DOC campsites which don’t have any facilities other than toilets.

It was great being back in Auckland for a few days & catching up with friends. It also reminded me of how when I lived in Auckland (1991-1999) one of my self-care rules was to have one weekend away every month. This kept me sane & feeling great about where I live, but like a lot of things I had ceased to do this since the COVID era. So I am going to reinstate the regime: one weekend away every month! Except now that I am 100% autonomous, my ‘weekend away’ will far more likely be during the week when the normies are at work & when the weather forecast suits. Shorter trips will also allow me evolve my setup faster, so next I will do an overnight trips to the following camping sites:

– Corner Creek DOC camping site, Palliser Bay
– Tora, Council camping site
– White Rock, Council camping site
– Ngawi, Council camping site

Once I’ve evolved my setup, I have a hankering for an epic South Island trip – right down to Fjordland…
I’ve since watched a few youtube videos where people have added a sleeping platform inside a 4WD of similar size to mine, so that might be on the cards. With the back seats removed, it does feel like I need to structure the interior for better storage & access.
Its a fun hobby and I’m sure as I get more experience & evolve my setup, will become even more rewarding!